Warner Archive will release the first Man from Atlantis pilot telefilm, titled Man from Atlantis, on Blu-ray on March 12th. NBC aired the made-for-TV movie on March 4th, 1977. Three more pilot telefilms followed later that year. A short-lived weekly series debuted in September 1977. It ran for 13 episodes.
Here’s the official description:
He’s the lone survivor of a lost civilization…thrust into ours. A giant storm tosses ashore a being who is both human and a creature from the deep. Mark Harris is the name given to him by the astonished scientists who study and protect their remarkable find. Harris is equally astonished, a fish out of water eager to learn about us. Patrick Duffy (a year before beginning his legendary run on Dallas) plays the Atlantean in the origin movie that (along with three more films) preceded the cult classic Man from Atlantis TV series. In this adventure, Harris uses his amazing underwater abilities to save mankind from a madman’s (Victor Buono) plot to launch missiles from all the world’s nuclear submarines!
And here’s the cover:
Photo Credit: WBShop.com
Please note this is a manufacture-on-demand title (Warner Archive uses the term “Made To Order”).
Warner Archive released the first pilot telefilm on DVD in October 2009. Separate DVD collections containing the four made-for-TV movies and the weekly TV series came out on DVD in July 2011. Will the same happen on Blu-ray?
Why would Warner Archive release the pilot and not the series since Patrick Duffy went on to play Bobby on Dallas?
Probably the only reason Warner Archive wouldn’t release the other made-for-TV movies and the weekly series on Blu-ray is if the first pilot telefilm has awful sales.
Still, consider the fact that WB is the only studio actively releasing Classic TV on DVD. For example, next month they will finally complete Alice with the ninth season!
It would be natural to “test the waters” with the pilot movie first before investing in the other three films and the TV series.
And the show was already made available on DVD, which for a 70s show would be enough to satisfy most fans. DVD quality would still be better than what they saw on TV.
The movies were good but they ruined the series relying too much on Victor Buono as the villain. He went from being a threat to being a clown. Many later episodes without him were good but by that time it was too late to save the series.